The instant classic “Dumb Ways to Die” was an Ads Worth Spreading winner at TED2013 this past spring.

For the fourth year, TED is searching for the 10 most innovative, idea-driven ads of the year, with the help of TED speakers like Sarah Kay and Charlie Todd, as well as some of the advertising world’s biggest stars.

Today, TED AdsWorth Spreading reveals the 20 Advocates and 5 Nomination Teams who will help find and nominate the best campaigns of 2013, from which the TED curation team will award 10 pieces of incredible work.

TED charged five Nomination Teams of two — made up of one renowned TED speaker and one rising star from the advertising industry — with finding and nominating the most compelling work of 2013 in their respective categories. Creator of Dumb Ways to Die, John Mescall of McCann will work with Sarah Kay to find creative work in Storytelling. Matt Miller of AICP will work with TED Fellow and co-founder of Skillshare Michael Karnjanaprakorn to find ads in the category of Learning. See the full list here.

The 20 TED Ads Worth Spreading Advocates are advertising industry leaders who help shape the Ads Worth Spreading initiative, as well as recommending their favorite ads of the year for consideration. Among them are innovators like Cindy Gallop, creative marketers like Eliza Esquivel of Mondelez, renowned creative directors like Joe Staples and influential trade journalists like Paul Kemp-Robertson. See the full list here.

In its fourth year, the Ads Worth Spreading initiative will focus its momentum on the idea of brand bravery. To do this, the program will seek out and reward two groups: the agencies that nurture creative ideas to craft brilliant campaigns and the brands that are brave enough to embrace innovative ideas. Only through authentic collaborations between forward-thinking brands and agencies can we write a new future for advertising.

With YouTube as principal supporter on this project, TED will also be bringing in their Leaderboard element to help discover the most-watched ads on their platform in 2013.

At the AICP Conference in New York this morning, TED announced the third cycle of Ads Worth Spreading, our initiative to find the 10 most compelling ad campaigns of the year. We also released a report to share insights from the creatives behind the winning ads and the nomination teams that picked them. The paper reveals how both creators and consumers think about ads.

Ads Worth Spreading finds examples of what advertising can be — how companies, corporations and organizations can successfully create informative, stimulating and enriching content for audiences. Imagine if advertising was not something to “sit through”; but instead, inspiring media that could spark change, raise awareness and communicate new thinking. Chipotle’s “Back to the Start” campaign spoke to people because it advocated a compelling idea – a return to a sustainable, ethical way to produce food and support for struggling small farmers.

In searching for the ads we wanted to watch, we learned that ads must be driven by ideas. It is no longer enough to repeat the pour shots, bites and smiles that have defined a large portion of advertising to this point. Brands must create wonder and find their place in larger cultural conversations.We also found that to convey a message, ads need to run longer than the 15- or 30-second spot.

It’s also important to understand how ads live in social media — videos are posted on YouTube, then tweeted and shared on Facebook. The post-production conversation is an essential part of the discussion between brands and consumers. And if there’s going to be a conversation, brands should have something to say.

For this year’s challenge, TED will tap thought leaders in advertising, the arts, business and more, to find compelling ad work from around the globe. Unlike last year’s open entry system, we will rely solely on the work of our nomination teams and advocates. We’ve found that with a global team of people from different backgrounds working together, the best ads and most interesting discoveries are made.

Six curated teams of two – made up of one renowned TED speaker paired with one rising star from the advertising industry – will seek out and nominate compelling ads and branded content in the categories of: Talk, Social Good, Cultural Compass, Creative Wonder, Brand Bravery and Education. In addition, TED’s 25 Advocates – industry leaders in advertising, production, curation and film – will also make suggestions and nominations.

The 10 final selections of the second TED Ads Worth Spreading initiative were announced from the TED stage only moments ago, and we’re excited to share the results. The winners are a truly diverse group, representing the best of the categories Brand Bravery, Creative Wonder, Social Good, Cultural Compass, Talk and Storytelling.

Entries and nominations came in from 39 countries, and the winners reflect that global scope. Our 25 industry leading Advocates and our six Nomination Teams — each made up of one TED speaker and one bright young thinker in advertising — helped us find and curate spectacular campaigns.

We were thrilled by the enthusiastic response of the global advertising community, as over 300 agency office s submitted hundreds of impressive entries through our Ads Worth Spreading channel on YouTube. And, we offer warm thanks to our incredible supporters YouTube, AICP, Zester, Art Directors’ Club, 4A’s, IAB, IAA, Contagious Magazine and The Advertising Club of New York.

Welcome to the TEDActive 2012 Projects! Whether or not you’re attending TEDActive in Palm Springs next week, you’re invited to join a few brainstorms and get ideas flowing around six big topics. Jump into the online discussions, find other amazing people and spark collaborative conversation on Facebook.

There are six projects listed below. Read the questions that drive each one, and join up with the TEDActive Project groups that intrigue you most. The Projects harness the huge energy and optimism of our community to dream up answers to big questions. Our diversity of cultures, backgrounds and talents come together to discover new ideas.

At the TEDActive conference, we’ll be capturing the story of each idea and sharing them in blogs, video and more, so our collective thinking can continue to help these ideas grow. Look our for updates through social media and on TED.com

Check out the Facebook groups listed below and the Project microsite, watch the very cool shorts that introduce each theme, discover more about the facilitators, storytellers and amplifiers that will catalyze your ideas. The conversations are starting — jump in and share!

We’re only two weeks away from the December 31 deadline for Ads Worth Spreading — TED’s initiative to recognize and reward innovation, ingenuity and intelligence in advertising. Please remember to enter before the holidays are here, as good intentions to submit your incredible work might give way to celebrations and vacations.

As a holiday bonus, we’ve got great news! Five agencies who enter the Ads Worth Spreading initiative will be randomly selected for a visit from TED. Our team will curate a special session for your agency, staged in the first half of 2012. These agency visits are designed to spark deeper conversations between TED and the global marketing community.

]]>http://blog.ted.com/enter-ads-worth-spreading-and-ted-could-visit-your-agency/feed/1Screen shot 2011-12-15 at 4.45.02 PMshannacarpenterScreen shot 2011-12-15 at 4.45.02 PMThe INK Conference 2011: Day two of the journeyhttp://blog.ted.com/the-ink-conference-2011-day-two-of-the-journey/
http://blog.ted.com/the-ink-conference-2011-day-two-of-the-journey/#commentsFri, 09 Dec 2011 22:07:17 +0000http://blog.ted.com/?p=53929[…]]]>The second day of the INK Conference in Jaipur, India was another eclectic mix of musicians, inventors, designers and visionaries. The conference’s narrative theme, The Power of the Journey, continued as each session attempted to capture the most important moments of every life. Talks are being held from Thursday December 8 to Sunday December 11. Through their partnership with India Times, watch one of the incredible sessions live here at 11 am IST>>

The morning’s first session, “Meeting of the Minds,” began as Roberto Narain and Vasundhara Daa of Drumjam remembered the sheer joy of the previous night’s drum circle and shared stories about how their simple project to create drum circles has helped people to connect and find their bliss. Then Rob Cook of Pixar took the stage to talk about the exquisite creative balance that’s required to guide huge teams of creatives, writers and technologists through the process of making animated films that evoke true emotion. Designer Lisa Staprans talked about how India inspired her to put her heart into every interior she created and forever changed the way she decorated homes. Anupam Mishra showed the wisdom of past civilizations that built ingenious systems for collecting water. Genpact CEO N.V. “Tiger” Tyagarajan theorized that the industrial rise of India’s third largest financial hub, Guragaon, has radically changed the lives of many working-class Indians.

The second session of the day, “Making Connections,” began its exploration with INK Fellow Charles Ma, who practices the female-dominated art of Bharatanayam dance and uses dramatic facial expressions and incredibly elegant movement to capture his audience. John Hardy’s daughter and INK Fellow Elora Hardy left a rising career in fashion in New York to return to rural Bali and work with the traditional craftsmen she grew up with, designing sustainable and breathtaking bamboo homes. Wildlife photographer Kalyan Varma decided to share his photos on the web under a Creative Commons license, and serendipity brought him inventive collaborators and even some unexpected financial rewards. As the first female engineer at Facebook, Ruchi Sangvi began her career connecting others, taking risks, facing fears and even going against her parents’ wishes to create the life she wanted. She revealed her most counterintuitive decision yet — to leave Facebook in its most successful times, and follow her dream to begin her own company. Prakash Amte provides medical services to tribal people in rural Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Chhatisgarh, He shared his amazing stories of caring for both the people in those communities and the animals their ecosystems depend on. INK Fellow Selene Biffi started Youth Action for Change at 22, and their platform provides learning for young people around the world for free. Shirin Juwaley silenced the room when she shared the story of her unhappy arranged and marriage and her husband’s reaction to her request for a divorce — throwing acid on her face that would permanently alter her appearance. She has founded a network that provides therapy and support for others who have suffered disfiguring accidents, and delivered a passionate call to the audience to consider the needless loneliness “visually different” people suffer.

The incredibly young classical tabla ensemble Talavya opened the day’s third session “Crossroads” with a rousing and technically brilliant performance. Following them was a meditative talk by businesswoman Anu Aga who managed to survive and grow in the face of the trauma of losing her husband and her son, and set her mind on always daring to be the kind of woman she wanted to be. INK Fellow Nikhilesh Das demonstrated how organic materials like sawdust, human hair trimmings and feathers can be used to absorb oil in environmental disasters, using waste to save lives. Palestinian-born Rasha Ali shared her idea to solve ehe growing problem of educated yet unemployed young people in her home country, creating a movement of entrepreneurs. Innovator GBS Bindra issued a call to drive greener, reminding the audience that saving energy creates a lower fuel price. Perfumer Yann Vasnier has an uncommon career, but he always knew that creating scents was his dream and pursued it without distraction. Walking us through the incredible chemistry of smell, he had two requests: Take the time to smell your world and follow your dreams.

To kick off the last session “Leap of Faith,” was Rajika Puri, a Bharata Natyam and Odissi dancer who brings in modern innovations and blends with Flamenco. She told the Mahabharata’s mesmerizing story of Savitri through dance, explaining that the myths hold power because they capture the knowledge and wisdom of a culture. Entrepreneur Wolfgang Lehmacher shared his vision for micro business as a way to empower people at the bottom of the pyramid to make change. INK Fellow Abhishek Bhagat has invented a device that seems right out of The Jetsons — add ingredients and the Robocook is programmed to make chai just like his mom’s, and he’s got programs for several other dishes in development (all of them based on Mom’s recipes). Harpal Singh closed the session with his fight to demonstrate the value of a female child to families across India, creating cultural rewards and incentives to give thanks when girls are born.

Look out for tomorrow’s livestreamed session, with talks from artist Raghava KK, conductor Itay Talgam, the first woman to participate in space tourism and more.

Artists, scientists, entrepreneurs and technologists are gathered in Jaipur, India to attend the second year of the INK Conference — an experience hosted by TEDster Lakshmi Pratury and with its roots in the 2009 TEDIndia conference. The Power of the Journey is the theme of this year’s conference, held from Thursday December 8 to Sunday December 11. Through their partnership with India Times, watch all the incredible talks live here>>

The day began as Lakshmi recited the classic Robert Frost poem, The Road Less Travelled, and set the stage for the “The Call to Adventure,” a session filled with speakers who have chosen the adventures of life over safer, more reliable options. Julie Taymor, Broadway director of The Lion King and Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark, explained how her decision to spend three years soaking in the theatrical culture of Indonesia changed her productions forever. Author Amish Tripathi self-published his book after unanimous rejection, only to hit bestseller lists across India a week after releasing his work. Jewelry designer John Hardy showed that his Green School in Bali continues to thrive, recapping a year of incredible success and determination since presenting his dream at TEDGlobal 2010. Biologist Claire Kremen encouraged farmers to make the less popular choice of diversifying their crops and in so doing, save the honeybee. Ayesha Kanna‘s call was to invest in a new kind of city — a generative city that celebrates technology and makes every resident an invested stakeholder. Mohamed Ali Mang shared his dream of becoming a Wall Street tycoon, which he dashed to move back to his native Mali and support a nutrient-enriched rice crop, and called on other young Africans to join him. But, the speaker that brought the audience to its feet was 15-year-old Aisha Chaudhary, who has lived fiercely in the face of her immune deficiency and pulmonary issues. Aisha had several pieces of life advice for her adult audience. Among them were, “Believe in miracles,” and “When all else fails, get a dog.”

The second session was the Frost poem namesake and featured speakers who continue to stand out for walking a path that’s a little different from their peers. INK Fellow Dina Buchbender uses games to teach kids about the UN’s Millenium Development Goals. Parag Khanna encouraged India to embrace globalization’s new future, and seize the opportunity to build a different model of economy — one that works. Vineet Singal and his team have been waging an incredibly public search to find a bone marrow match for his friend Amit Gupta, using optimism, humor and social networks. Composer Elliot Gloldenthal gave a retrospective of his work for film, and the unique choices that create powerful moments. Madhumita Haider demoed her game to teach kids the 11 major Indian languages, while artist Bedri Baykam walked the audience through a dizzying slideshow that illustrated his controversial artistic and political views.

Tomorrow, the first full day of sessions will take a deeper dive into the tools we need and troubles we face through every life journey.

Have you seen an Ad Worth Spreading? Our nomination teams want to know. As part of the Ads Worth Spreading initiative for 2012, TED picked six teams of two — a TED speaker or Fellow teamed with one of the brightest thinkers in advertising — to find and nominate ads that showed intelligence and ingenuity. Each team was charged with finding ads in a specific area of interest.

Two of those teams have gone above and beyond the call, creating amazing websites to help find the most incredible ads out there!

Jinal Shah of JWT New York and artist Raghava KK collaborated on this website and crowdsourced Pinterest (above) in their search for Creative Wonder, finding work that elevates the craft of the creative in advertising, that is ingeniously clever or technically brilliant, using technology in ways we’ve never seen. These ads showcase compelling writing, amazing musical compositions, cinematic art direction or high-impact design, and make information beautiful.

Eliza Esquivel of TBWA\Chiat\Day and Tim Brown of IDEO use the Projeqt/ platform to create this website (below) looking for ads that showcase Brand Bravery, rewarding the brands that have reinvented their image, or even their industry; companies that have it hard because their business or product may not not flashy, but they stand out from the herd with an authentic, engaging, clever campaign; companies that are radically transparent in the face of difficult issues.

We’re really looking forward to seeing the amazing campaigns these teams discover. If you’ve created an Ad Worth Spreading, you can enter it here or browse the entries coming in daily.

Today, TED Curator Chris Anderson announced the second cycle of Ads Worth Spreading at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s MIXX conference in New York.

This year’s Ads Worth Spreading is searching to find the 10 most compelling campaigns of 2011, driven by this belief: that the smartest, strongest ads don’t just sell a product or brand, but express an idea.

TED’s mission is ideas worth spreading. The dream behind the Ads Worth Spreading initiative is to find companies that want to communicate ideas to their consumers in the same way that TED wants to communicate with its audience.

Revealing the way a company thinks tells consumers what that company is and what it stands for. In last year’s contest, one of our final selections, Chrysler’s “Born of Fire” campaign, spoke to people because it communicated an incredible idea — steel is born of fire, and cities that go through hard times aren’t dead forever.

“In our brave new interconnected world, the rules of marketing are changing fast,” says Anderson. “Ambush advertising is broken. We think there’s a better way, based on sharing powerful ideas. Most companies are teeming with amazing ideas that the rest of the world never gets to see. By letting some of those ideas out into the world in an authentic way, companies have a shot at transforming the way they are perceived. We’re looking forward to another fantastic round of entries from forward-thinking companies and people.”

We’re combining curation and crowdsourcing to find the best ads from every corner of the globe. There are four ways for a campaign to make it to the final selection:

• Agencies, brands, producers and individuals are invited to submit work that expresses a clever, compelling or infectious idea. TED will open submissions on October 15, 2011, and close on December 31, 2011.

• Six nomination teams of two — made up of one renowned TED speaker or Fello and one rising star from the advertising industry — will tap their networks to seek out and nominate compelling ads from specific areas of interest.

• TED’s 24 Advocates from the advertising industry will make valuable suggestions and nominations.

• YouTube’s Ad Blitz will help in sourcing all Super Bowl ads.

YouTube will help promote and showcase the Ads Worth Spreading selections online, as well as celebrating all final selections at TED2012 with an artistic installation. Other Ads Worth Spreading industry supporters include Contagious Magazine, AICP, the 4As, IAB, IAA, the Art Directors’ Club, and NiceSpots.

We hope you’ll also support us in this search for innovation, ingenuity and intelligence in advertising — the ads that people want to see, and share with their friends.

In February at TEDActive 2011, the TEDActive Projects were launched. Five teams came together to explore, collaborate and act on five vital issues: education, mobility, sustainability, social networks and travel, sharing ideas about how to create attitude shifts that might produce positive change. Now we’re taking those crowd-sourced solutions up a notch, and asking our TED.com community to join the conversations.

For the next 30 days, rotating after TEDTalks or on the TEDActive Projects site, you can watch mini-documentaries on each project and see how the TEDActive team answered a question around a big issue. If you have an idea, another question, a resource to offer or even an objection, jump into the discussion in the TED Conversation dedicated to each project. Lend your voice, and let’s see how exploration and collaboration might lead to action.

The 10 winners of TED’s inaugural Ads Worth Spreading initiative have been announced from the stage. Selected from more than 1,000 submissions from around the world, they are some of the most creative, compelling and out-of-the-box communications of the past year. The winners are a truly diverse group — from major agencies to tiny boutiques to college students and non-profits, hailing from around the world.

In an earlier interview, Chris Anderson had this to say about the effort:

“We’re seeking to reverse the trend of ads being aggressively forced on users. We want to nurture ads so good you choose to watch – and share. On TED.com, ads run after our talks, not before. As well as avoiding the annoyance of interruption, this positioning means they can run longer than the TV-standard 30-seconds. And that’s the key — in 2-3 minutes, there’s more time to tell a story, share an idea, make an authentic human connection. These winning ads, many of them long-form, powerfully demonstrate these strengths. We think they represent an exciting new way for companies to engage with the world in the internet age.”

YouTube was a key supporter in this challenge, helping solicit and review submissions and showcasing the winning ads on the homepage of YouTube.com. AICP and NiceSpots graciously provided us an easy-to-use online judging system. We were also given support by Art Directors Club, The One Club/One Show, 4A’s, IAA, IAB and Contagious Magazine. All ads are being featured on TED.com from March 21 to March 27, and in an online Winners Gallery for a year. Visit it here to see all the winners and honorable mentions >>

IBM’s language-savvy computer Watson has been dominating against humans on the game show Jeopardy! for the past two nights, and makes his final appearance this evening. And tomorrow, live on TED.com, IBM is hosting an insider’s conversation about Watson with Watson’s principal investigator Dr. David Ferrucci, IBM Fellow Kerrie Holley, and Columbia professor of clinical medicine Dr. Herbert Chase, hosted by Man v. Machine author Stephen Baker.

The big question: Now that Watson has succeeded on a game show, the team is digging in to develop real-world products based on this exciting technology. They’ll be asking: What’s next?

And you can ask these panelists a question too: Between now and 10am EST tomorrow, tweet your questions, and tag them #askwatson or #ibmwatson to have your tweet considered by the panel. Then watch live to see if they answer.

]]>http://blog.ted.com/live-on-ted-com-tomorrow-ask-an-ibm-insider-about-watson/feed/3shannacarpenterAds Worth Spreading: Last call for entries!http://blog.ted.com/ads-worth-spreading-last-call-for-entries/
http://blog.ted.com/ads-worth-spreading-last-call-for-entries/#commentsMon, 31 Jan 2011 19:21:00 +0000http://blog.ted.com/?p=47960[…]]]>With only one week to deadline, we’re making a final call for submissions to the Ads Worth Spreading challenge — TED’s initiative to find, recognize and reward the most innovative campaigns around. To date, there have been incredibly promising entries, but the search isn’t over yet.

Whether you’re a well-heeled creative professional or an indie media whiz, if you’ve created a piece every bit as compelling as your favorite TED talk, submit your entry here by Monday, February 7 at 11:59 PM EST. If you’ve recently seen work that inspires you, nudge its creators to do the same.

What we are looking for can be:

+ a beautifully produced, :60 cinematic TV spot for a top brand

+ a long-form 3-minute video too long for network but perfect for online

+ a spec spot that has a hugely compelling idea or new use of technology

+ an online video of your CEO giving a short, TED-like talk about your company’s idea to change the world

+ a PSA that makes you cry and click Share

The 10 best campaigns will be announced on the main stage at TED2011 in Long Beach, get incredible exposure on YouTube’s home page and spend a week on TED.com as post-roll, with a member of each winning team invited to spend a day at TED2011 in Long Beach and attend an exclusive celebration in March. For more information, visit Ads Worth Spreading on TED.com >>

The last two sessions of the INK Conference were among the best of the three-day experience in Lavasa, India. On Sunday, December 12, attendees made it to the conference center bright and early to see talks by artist Raghava KK, The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, designer Philippe Starck and more.

Session 8:Alexander Tsiarias shared his eclectic life story, describing how he went from being an Olympic athlete to an art student to a medical innovator, and was thrown out of seven universities along the way. Raghava KK introduced his latest project — an iPad app that lets you play with and personalize his illustrations, allowing kids to create their own scenes, stories and perspectives. Lego’s creative director, John Henry Harris encouraged attendees to play hard in order to work better, emphasizing the importance of the play in unleashing creativity. INK Fellow and metallurgist Sharada Srinivasan drew symbolic connections between the physical quality of metals and stories behind the dances portrayed in classical Indian bronzes. Arvind Gupta delivered simple yet stunning ideas for turning trash into seriously entertaining, well-designed toys that kids can build themselves. The Raghu Dixit Band brought the conference to its feet and had everyone clapping in this early morning performance, blending traditional Indian rhythms with rock guitar and a whole lot of energy.

Session 9:
Designer Philippe Starck gave a hilarious talk while introducing his work and the principles behind it, from democratic design to minimalism. The youngest INK Fellow, 14-year-old game designer Shivam Sai Gupta, who has been already been partnering with gaming companies around India, demoed his incredible work and shared his dream to create an internationally popular game. Cartoonist Lynda Barry gave a clever, heartwarming talk on her playful inspirations, reminding us to take a moment and look at the art and imagery happening all around us, at every moment. Matt Groening began his talk by revealing the process behind the creation of some of The Simpsons’ most well-known characters, but then switched gears to tell a beautifully personal story about his father, the inspiration for Homer Simpson. Rives performed a mash-up of quotes from every speaker at the conference, somehow managing to make it poetic — and funny. Shantanu Moitra and Swanand Kirkire ended the program with incredible Indian harmonies.

The INK Conference‘s second day of talks unearthed brilliant Indian innovators and placed them alongside familiar TED speakers like Adora Svitak and Tom Wujec, as well as internationally known figures like Deepak Chopra.

Session 4:
Thirteen-year-old author Adora Svitak shared her insight into how kids are using technology today. Joi Ito, CEO of Creative Commons, shared the principles behind his organization and explained why sharing is actually the key to success. Rama Budhihlal talked about Digital Hampi — his project to preserve India’s heritage in a digital mobile lab. Philanthropist and VC Kamran Elahian talked about doing good with technology and announced his new program MyNetbook, which will bring free laptops to thousands of Indian children. Adrianna Svitak (Adora’s sister) finished the session with an achingly beautiful piano performance.

Session 5:Alexander Tsiaras, of TheVisualMD.com, talked about his project on the nine visual rules of wellness, making a plea for a new way of thinking about our health. Indian actress Deepti Naval gave a reading of the haunting poems she wrote after spending time in mental hospital as research for a role. Film producer and author Simon Lewis told the extraordinary story of the accident that landed him in coma and the experimental technology that has helped his recovery many years later. Zambian-Italian singer-songwriter Leonie Casanova gave a soulful and personal performance, including a song about her father’s last moments. INK Fellow Sophie Morgan explained how she has used fashion and design to be an activist for people with disabilities — because being in a wheelchair does not stop you from being a model. Anita Goel explained how her fascination with nanotechnoology, biology and physics led her to create her Gene-RADAR technology, which can perform instantaneous diagnosis with a single drop of blood. Deepak Chopra spoke about consciousness and the mind beyond the brain.

Session 6:
Author of Slide:ology, Nancy Duartebroke the code of giving a great presentation. Founder of the “Super 30″ Anand Kumar shared the amazing successes his students have had, as well as their continuous perseverance. George Mathew, conductor, revealed that a vicious mugging in New York inspired him to begin staging his concerts for causes — he realized that his muggers were just kids who were never given opportunity. Physician and musician Luis Dias explained how he started the Child’s Play Foundation to teach music to underprivileged children. Singer, composer and INK Fellow Joi Barua delivered an amazing, emotional performance of a new, original piece. Tom Wujec painted the new future of manufacturing, and says that it will be shaped by the 3 technology trends of digitized reality, infinite computing and rapid fabrication. Before he was a poet, Rives was a paper engineer, and he shared his incredible, whimsical creations.

Session 7:
Video game designer Corey Bridges talked about how the Internet enables collaboration. Rick Smolan told the story of a young Amerasian girl whose adoption he arranged — her adopted father, Gene Driskell, is one of his best friends and the INK Conference official photographer. Anti-trafficking crusader Sunitha Krishnan explained why, even after receiving financial funding, the business of rescuing women and children from sex slavery is inherently dangerous and unbelievably difficult. She asked that we recognize that the journey is not over until the most excluded among us are accepted. INK Fellow C Mallesha showed attendees the automatic loom he invented in order to ease the aching his mother suffered after five hours of weaving every day. Public health expert Mussarat Zaidi called for a different way of looking at hygiene, suggesting that keeping a few pathogens in our food supply might actually be best. Street. Contemporary street magician and Fellow Ugesh Sarcar related the unusual path he took to learn magic, and why his famous father’s refusal to teach him everything he knew was the best thing he could have done. Mark Koska demonstrated how his non-reusable, five-cent syringe could have a huge impact on public health. Another INK Fellow, Ashwini Akkunji shared her incredible journey — she began running by chasing cattle in her village, and was recently part of the team that brought home India’s first gold medal home at the Commonwealth Games in over 50 years.

On Thursday, December 10, India’s INK Conference held its inaugural day of talks. Attendees gathered outside the theater doors at Lavasa Conference Center, anticipating three sessions of TED-like ideas. INK did not disappoint, delivering a day’s worth of breathtaking perspective and innovation, both local and global.

Session 1: Science writer Anil Ananthaswamy gave an overview of the exploratory work that is mapping the cosmos, from the Extremely Large Telescope in Chile to balloon launches from Antarctica. Senior Maverick at Wired, Kevin Kelly presented his “Theory of Technology”, proposing that our digital tools have come about through a process of evolution much as we have and should be classified as the seventh kingdom of life. INK Fellow and author Anand Giridharadas shared his rediscovery of India as the child of immigrant parents, and gave five points that evidenced the enigma of modern India — a country that is trying to embrace progress while cherishing its traditional values. Social psychologist and author of The Dragonfly Effect, Jennifer Aaker brought many audience members to tears with her story of how social media was used to find a bone marrow match for a close friend, suggesting other ways to use the web for good. Derek Sivers delivered a counterintuitive, but convincing, explanation of how failure is the only way we truly learn.

Session 2:Babar Ali, the “youngest headmaster in the world” kicked off the session by sharing the inspiration that drove him to begin a school, for anyone in his rural village that wanted to learn but didn’t have access to education. He appeared at TEDIndia in 2009, and since that time has devoted himself to improving his English so that he could express himself in his own words today. Transplant surgeon Susan Lim revealed medicine’s latest startling advances in using stem cells to repair, rather than replace, organs. Serial entrepreneur Dinh Thi Hoa shared the amazing personal story of how she survived the Vietnam war, communist Russia and Harvard Business School, to begin a range of successful businesses, from a chain of coffee shops to a mobile banking network. Designer Michael Foley walked us through the creative process he used when creating the new Queen’s Baton, incorporating the actual soil of India. TV and documentary director Sandy Smolan showed the work he’s done for both Heifer Internation and the Gates Foundation, encouraging other creatives to engage in projects that could positively affect the world. Attendee and Indian gaming mogul Vishal Gondal gave a hilariously inspiring talk on the importance of being stupid.

Session 3:Alexander Tsiarias of TheVisualMD.com delivered the first of three short daily talks he will be giving at INK, showing his carefully crafted animation of the process of creating life, from conception to birth. INK Fellow and clay artisan Mansukhbhai Prajapati shared his amazing inventions for the rural poor of India — a refrigeration device that can operate without electricity and low-cost cooking implements like pressure cookers and non-stick pans (all made of clay). Nam Do of Emotiv.com demoed their intent-driven headset on an audience volunteer, who was able to see their emotional state instantaneously reflected in the face of an on-screen avatar. Filmmaker Shamim Sarif explained how her grandmother’s limited choices as a woman inspired her to write The World Unseen, a novel and film about two women falling in love, while surrounded by racism and homophobia. Web entrepreneur and Fellow Vinay Gidwaney outlined his vision for gently prodding us into well-being through online projects like DailyFeats.com. The session ended with host Lakshmi Pratury’s much-anticipated conversation with director James Cameron, who shared his fascination with India’s imagery, architecture and spirituality, and even said that he would be interested in helping an Indian director or producer to use the tools he developed for Avatar to recreate one of the traditional stories like the Ramayana or Mahabharata.

]]>http://blog.ted.com/the-ink-conference-day-1/feed/1shannacarpenterINK 2010-6880The INK Conference revs uphttp://blog.ted.com/the-ink-conference-revs-up/
http://blog.ted.com/the-ink-conference-revs-up/#commentsFri, 10 Dec 2010 01:48:19 +0000http://blog.ted.com/?p=47277[…]]]>The INK Conference, held in partnership with TED, begins today in the hillside town of Lavasa, India. Speakers and attendees began arriving last night, and shared an incredible dinner under the stars with the inaugural class of INK Fellows. Among these 20 astonishing thinkers and doers are Mushtaq Ahmed, a self-trained inventor whose pole-climbing devices curb the dangers of an everyday task; Shivam Sai Gupta, a 14-year-old game developer; Ugesh Sarcar, a contemporary and revered Indian street magician; and Shilo Shiv Suleman, an illustrator who is breathing new life into her magical worlds with augmented reality.

A few behind-the-scenes shots of the day’s set-up in the breathtaking conference center at Lavasa:

Every year, on December 1, the global community comes together on World AIDS Day to learn more about the virus and lend support to those living with HIV/AIDS.. This year’s theme is “Universal Access and Human Rights.”

To increase awareness of the effects of the AIDS virus, and to help understand its spread and possible preventative measures, we’d like to offer three TED Talks, each capturing a different aspect of this global issue. Mitchell Besser shares his innovative solution for HIV/AIDS education, support and prevention in sub-Saharan Africa, where medical professionals are in short supply. Elizabeth Pisani gives a witty, rational breakdown of the barriers to education on the spread of this 21st century epidemic. Finally, Annie Lennox delivers an account of her personal journey to becoming an activist for the cause.